Photographer Holds A Photoshoot With Her 16-Year-Old Dog Just In Time To Say Goodbye

For the past 16 years Chubby was photographer Maria Sharp's best friend. Unfortunately, the dog‘s health recently started to decline rapidly, so Sharp decided to dig up old photos of the two of them and organize one last photoshoot, documenting their beautiful friendship before Chubby passed away.

Chubby entered Sharp‘s life as a puppy when she was just 7 years old. From them on, they were simply inseparable. When Sharp became interested in photography, Chubby modeled for her, willing to help out. But as Chubby’s health started to decline, Sharp asked her friend, fellow photographer and dog lover Suzanne Price, to capture their beautiful moments together before Chubby left her.

Chubby passed away soon after the photoshoot, making their last photos a heartwarming memorial.

Maria Sharp and her life-long best friend Chubby

"This was the first day we got her, I was so excited to have something of my own I could take care of and love."

"This is one of my favorite pictures. I still pick her up like a baby till this day... even though she’s never been fond of my smothering."

"It’s so weird she’s laying on my legs. I think I was more of her best friend than I realized."

"And then she started sleeping all the time and taking over the bathroom."

"She got a whole lot of lovin’ from people who didn’t even know her!"

"When I didn’t have anyone to hang out with I hung out with, Chubby and I took selfies that weren’t called selfies yet."

"[This photo] won the “Pet Selfie” Contest at my vet’s office. It was fun to see her cuteness officially recognized."

"And then Chubby showed me off to college…"

"We started to see Chubby’s health decline over the last couple years. First came the cataracts."

"She began to lose her hearing and eventually lost the rest."

"She started losing traction in her paws so we had to put a rug by her water and food bowls. Then she had trouble sleeping."

"A week ago, she started vomiting and stopped eating all together. She got some medicine to help with the nausea but that didn’t seem to work."

"I decided to do a portrait session with Chubby about a week ago. This was when I knew her time was soon but not right around the corner."

"Her blood work results came back fine so we decided to go with an x-ray. That’s when we found the gallstones."

 "Surgery was the only sure fire way to fix it and we knew she was too weak for surgery."

"We made the decision to let her go on Monday. I’m writing this while she’s still alive because I know if I were to wait until after she was gone my brain would be mush and I wouldn’t be able to type through my tears."

RIP Chubby